Summer Recap: Memorial Day & 4th of July

Wow, I'm having to go really far back with these, but we had so much fun with Andrew's parents in town for Memorial Day and a great BBQ hosted by Jon & Deb, that I had to add these in for posterity. And Memorial Day will always be particularly special since Rachel was born on that memorable day last year. So rewind all the way back to May.....

Looking so cool in her shades: Hello summer sunshine!!!
It was so fun to have Papa & Nana around. As always, Rachel loved playing with them and with all her cousins...

And happy as can be with her Jen Jen.... Look Daddy, no hands! (this was all the way back when standing on her own was a big accomplishment)... `

Just chillin' on the hammock with Matthew....

Memorial Day was great--we loved spending the day hanging out with the Clarks and Bradfords.

And then we fast forward a little to the Fourth of July, where we braved the crowds and the past-bedtime hours to go watch the fireworks downtown with our friends the Jenn & Kurt. I originally wasn't daring enough to try this, but when Jenn said they were going with 3 kids under the age of 3, I figured I didn't have any excuse! And I'm so glad we did it--it was a blast to hang out with them and their little crew. Plus, I appreciate Jenn's example of getting out of the house and doing fun things with little ones even when it's tough, since it is usually so worth it in the end (a lesson I'll try to remember in the coming months once I have two munchkins to entertain and a Boston winter to confront).

Rachel sported her cool shades again, along with her very patriotic new dress from Grandma. We had multiple people stop to take pictures of our adorable little patriot!

And Jenn shared their family tradition with us by making homemade strawberry shortcake for everyone -- she really is super mom!

We watched from the Cambridge side of the Charles River, so we had a great view of downtown Boston...

And we thought the fireworks were amazing....although Rachel wasn't convinced at first. She finally fell asleep about 15 minutes before they started the show, so it took her a few minutes to decide if they were worth waking up for. Eventually she got really excited about them (although I think Andrew still enjoyed them the most out of anyone--he's still a big kid at heart!)